City guide · Shaanxi
Thirteen dynasties of emperors, a terracotta army buried for 2,200 years, and a walled city you can cycle in 100 minutes.
Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10
The short version
City guide
Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.
The city isn't like a big metropolis full of skyscrapers and neon. That doesn't mean Xi'an is backward — most buildings are just older in style, full of character. The city isn't big, at least locals think so; the places you go every day are only a handful. But there are so many corners and small details that will move you.
Traveler's note, 'A Tour of the Ancient Capital, I Love Xi'an'
The roujiamo was genuinely good — fatty and lean pork together, dripping but not greasy, the rice noodles thick and chewy, the chili and bean sprouts crunchy. Eating that first thing in the morning really wakes you up.
Ao Xiaolu, 'Xi'an: Five Thousand Years of Food and Scenery'
Xi'an is a city built on a grid, and you feel it the moment you come up from the subway at Bell Tower: four straight avenues running north, south, east and west, and a 600-year-old wall drawn around the whole thing like a lid. Locals call the inside of the wall chengli — 'in the city' — and everything beyond it is measured by direction: east suburb, west suburb, south suburb. Climb the wall in the late afternoon and you can see both halves at once, the traffic crawling through the gates below and the grey tiled roofs of the old lanes behind them.
The reason people come, though, is underground. Xi'an was Chang'an, capital of 13 dynasties and, for a stretch of the Tang, the largest and most cosmopolitan city on earth — the eastern end of the Silk Road, where Persian merchants, Japanese monks and Central Asian horse traders all ended up. Emperors were buried in the surrounding plains with entire armies, and one of those armies, 8,000-odd terracotta soldiers in battle formation, was only dug up in 1974 by farmers drilling a well. It is still the single most astonishing thing most visitors see in China.
What saves Xi'an from being a museum is that it eats like a working city. Breakfast is a bowl of peppery beef-meatball hulatang with a flatbread torn into it; lunch is hand-ripped lamb paomo, cold liangpi noodles and a roujiamo pork sandwich that the city invented; dinner is skewers and plum juice in the alleyways behind the Drum Tower. You will walk more than you expect and eat more than you planned, and the two balance out.
Xi'an
Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.
Highlights
The wall that rings the old city is the most complete ancient city fortification in China — 13.7 km of rammed earth and grey brick built between 1374 and 1378. Walk it and you look down on both temple roofs and traffic jams; ride it and the whole loop takes about 40 minutes on a rented bike (CNY 40 single, CNY 80 tandem for 100 minutes). Enter at the South Gate (Yongningmen), where the crowds, the performances and the bike rental all cluster.
Qin Shi Huang's burial pits, 40 km east of the city in Lintong, are the single best-known archaeological find in China and the reason most people fly here. Three main pits hold thousands of life-size figures, each face different, and the standout pieces sit in separate cases outside the pits. Peak season (16 March–14 November) costs CNY 150, off-season CNY 120. The emperor's own tomb mound is nearby but frankly dull — skip it and spend the time on the pits.
Shaanxi History Museum holds 380,000 objects spanning the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties — bronze vessels, painted pottery figures, Tang gold and silverware, and tomb murals you will not see anywhere else. Admission is free but ticketed, and only 4,000 tickets go out each day (2,500 before 14:00, 1,500 after). The workaround locals use: buy the CNY 20 Treasures Gallery ticket at the bag-check counter on the right of the main gate and walk straight in.
Beiyuanmen and the lanes running west off it — Xiyangshi, Dapiyuan, Guangming Lane, Daxuexi Lane — are the densest concentration of food in the city, and the reason CNNGO put Xi'an on its 2012 list of Asia's ten best street-food cities. This is Hui Muslim territory: no alcohol is served in almost any shop, and nothing on the menu contains blood. Come hungry, come late, and bring cash for the small stalls.
Hua Shan rises out of the Wei River plain 118 km east of Xi'an, all sheer granite ridges and a famously vertiginous ridge walk at Canglong Ling. Most people climb overnight to catch sunrise from East Peak, then descend by cable car. Peak-season admission is CNY 180 and off-season CNY 100, and the ticket is valid for two days. Come on a clear night or you get fog and nothing else.
Itinerary
Everything Xi'an is known for, in an order that keeps you off the worst of the crowds. Book the Terracotta Warriors day first — it needs the earliest start.
Start at the South Gate as soon as the wall opens and rent a bike — by 10am the queues for both tickets and bicycles are long. Ride the full 13.7 km loop, then walk north down South Avenue to the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower's entrance is inside the underground pedestrian ring; the Drum Tower's is at street level. Both cost CNY 35. From the Drum Tower's north side you are standing at the mouth of the Muslim Quarter.
Stops: Xi'an City Wall (South Gate)Bell TowerDrum TowerMuslim Quarter (Beiyuanmen)Stele ForestShuyuanmen Culture StreetSmall Wild Goose Pagoda
Get to the Shaanxi History Museum before opening — either join the free-ticket queue or buy the CNY 20 Treasures Gallery ticket and skip it. Budget half a day; the Tang murals alone deserve an hour. Then walk east to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda: the squares around it are free, Ci'en Temple is CNY 50, and climbing the seven-storey pagoda is another CNY 30. Stay for the musical fountain on the north square after dark, then eat around Datang Buyecheng.
Stops: Shaanxi History MuseumBig Wild Goose PagodaCi'en TempleDatang BuyechengTang Paradise (optional evening)
Take bus 306 (also branded You 5) from the east square of the railway station at 7:00 — it is the only official tourist line and costs CNY 7, running 1–1.5 hours to the pits. Ignore anyone on the street claiming to be the 306; board only the vehicle with the official sign and pay on board. Spend the morning on the pits, then take the two-stop hop to Huaqing Hot Springs (CNY 110 peak, CNY 80 off-season) and, if you still have legs, Mount Li (CNY 70 peak, CNY 45 off-season) right next door. Note that once you exit Huaqing's back gate you cannot re-enter, so do Mount Li last or on its own day.
Stops: Terracotta Warriors MuseumHuaqing Hot SpringsMount Li National Forest Park
For second-timers or anyone who has already ticked off the warriors. Both day trips leave from the east square of the railway station, so base yourself near the wall's north side.
Bus You 2 leaves the east square of the railway station at 8:00 and returns from Famen Temple at 15:00 — one departure a day, CNY 18 each way. The temple, 120 km west near Baoji, claims 1,700 years of history and was the Tang imperial family's own shrine. Its crypt, sealed for 1,113 years, was opened in 1987 and yielded a true finger-bone relic of the Buddha plus 121 pieces of Tang gold and silverware and the first-ever find of Tang secret-colour porcelain. Admission is CNY 120 March–November, CNY 90 December–February. Buy your ticket at the old temple and exit the same way — every bus back stops there.
Stops: Famen TempleFamen Temple Underground PalaceTrue Relic Pagoda
Bus You 3 runs from the railway station east square to Qianling at 8:00 and back at 15:00. The tomb sits on Liang Shan, 6 km north of Qian County in Xianyang, and holds both Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian — the only husband-and-wife pair of emperors buried together anywhere. The approach ramp is a proper walk uphill, so wear real shoes. Admission is CNY 122 and the site opens 8:00–18:00 March–November, 9:00–17:00 December–February. Get back in time for the bus; there is no second one.
Stops: Qianling MausoleumLiang ShanQian County
Use the last day for whatever you skipped. Tang Paradise is a full reconstruction of a Tang imperial garden, open 9:00–22:00 with adult tickets at CNY 120 and evening dance-and-music shows — it is expensive and entirely modern, so only go if recreated palaces appeal. Daming Palace Heritage Park (CNY 60 adult, CNY 30 half-price, 9:30–18:00) is the excavated site of the Tang political centre, with an IMAX 3D film that rebuilds the vanished halls. Finish with a bowl of paomo and an early night before your train.
Stops: Big Wild Goose PagodaTang ParadiseDaming Palace Heritage Park
Sights
Non-negotiable
Three excavated pits of a buried army, roughly 8,000 figures in all, built for Qin Shi Huang and called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Pit 1 is the showstopper; the individual star figures — the kneeling archer, the bronze chariots — are displayed in separate halls outside the pits. The emperor's own tomb mound nearby is a grassy hill and honestly not worth the ticket.
Tip Ignore anyone at the station telling you their bus is the 306. Look for the official sign on the front of the vehicle and pay once you're on board. Hire a guide at the gate (about CNY 100 for a group) or you'll walk past the best stuff without knowing it.
Best value in town
The most complete surviving ancient city wall in China, built 1374–1378 and still ringing the old town for 13.7 km. You can walk it or, better, ride it — the top is wide enough for a proper bike loop past the four main gates: Changle in the east, Anding west, Yongning south, Anyuan north. Nineteen access points let you climb on wherever suits you.
Tip Start at the South Gate (Yongningmen): it's the closest to the Bell and Drum Towers, has the bike rental, and hosts most of the performances and exhibitions. Go in the late afternoon and you get daylight, sunset and the lit-up wall in one ride.
Free, but you must plan
A 380,000-piece collection covering the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties — bronzes, tomb figurines, Han and Tang gold and silver, and Tang tomb murals nobody else in the country can match. It is nicknamed the Pearl of the Ancient Capital and it deserves the reputation.
Tip The trick locals use: buy the CNY 20 Treasures Gallery ticket at the bag-check counter to the right of the main gate and walk straight in. Otherwise you're queuing from early morning for the free passes, which stop being issued at 16:00.
Free square, paid temple
Standing for over a thousand years, the pagoda was built to house the sutras Xuanzang carried back from India. The squares around it — north and south — are filled with oversized Tang-style buildings and cost nothing. The north square's musical fountain show is one of Xi'an's modern set pieces.
Tip The fountain show after dark is the reason to come in the evening. If you want the view, pay into Ci'en Temple and climb the seven storeys — the city spreads out flat and grey below you.
Hot springs and a love story
Mountain hot springs that Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang emperors all built palaces around, and the bathing retreat Yang Guifei famously favoured. The Tang-dynasty dance drama The Song of Everlasting Sorrow is staged here and gets genuinely good reviews.
Tip Huaqing Palace sits right beside Mount Li and it's tempting to combine them — don't do it through the back gate. Once you exit you can't re-enter, and you'll still have to buy a separate Mount Li ticket. Do them as two separate visits.
Half a day, no more
A forested ridge south of Lintong with over thirty historical sites scattered across it, and hot springs that have drawn emperors since the Western Zhou more than 3,000 years ago. It's a modest climb, not a serious one.
Tip If you want to do Mount Li properly plus Huaqing Palace, give them a full separate day. Squeezing both into an afternoon means rushing the one thing you came for.
The only joint imperial tomb
Built in 684 AD on Mount Liang, 6 km north of Qianxian in Xianyang, this is the only tomb in the world holding two emperors who were also husband and wife: Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian, China's sole female emperor. The layout copies the plan of Tang Chang'an and the scale is genuinely imposing.
Tip One bus a day each way means you're committed to the schedule. Miss the 15:00 return and you're paying for a taxi back to Xi'an.
Quiet alternative
A classic multi-eaved Tang pagoda inside Jianfu Temple, paired with the Big Wild Goose Pagoda across town and named 'small' only because it's smaller. The Xi'an Museum next door covers the city's urban development and is free with ID.
Tip A temple fair runs here around Chinese New Year and it's as old-fashioned and loud as you'd hope. If the Big Wild Goose Pagoda crowds wear you down, this is the same architecture with a fraction of the people.
Food
Lamb and torn flatbread in broth — the dish that represents Shaanxi cooking more than any other. Rich, dense, faintly gamey, and filling enough that you won't need dinner. Tear the bread yourself, and tear it small: the smaller the pieces, the better the broth soaks in. Finish with a small bowl of clear broth.
Cured meat stuffed into a fresh-baked tuotuo bun. The Muslim Quarter version uses cured lamb or beef and comes in a huge portion. The non-Muslim version — lazhi rou jiamo, the 'Chinese hamburger' — dates back to the Warring States period and pairs braised pork with a baiji bun.
Cold skin noodles, sold in three main styles: Qinzhen rice-skin, Hanzhong hot rice-skin and Qishan hand-rolled. Ask for 'two mixed' (两搅) — liangpi and mung-bean sheet noodles together — which is what locals order in summer. The sesame-paste version is halal and sold all over the Muslim Quarter; the rest usually isn't.
Pork intestine soup with torn bread, named after the gourd a Tang-dynasty physician supposedly hung outside the shop that perfected the seasoning. The intestines are cleaned thoroughly — no off notes, just soft, rich and faintly fatty. Chun Fa Sheng restaurant is the famous address.
Hand-pulled wide noodles, blanched, then topped with spring onion, shredded meat, Sichuan pepper, salt and a thick layer of chilli flakes, and finished with a pour of smoking oil that makes the whole bowl go red. Three thousand years of history behind a bowl that costs less than a coffee.
Little steamed rice cakes on sticks, CNY 3 each, in rose, strawberry, blueberry, pineapple, melon and hawthorn flavours, dusted with crushed peanuts and sauce. In summer, look for the glass-fronted carts selling honey cold rice cake — the vendor cuts it with a string stretched across the frame and dresses it with rose jam and honey.
The Xi'an breakfast of choice: beef meatball soup with potato, cabbage and carrot, finished with sesame oil and chilli, and a tuotuo bun torn in to soak. Peppery, beefy, warming, and it costs almost nothing.
Where to eat
Mutton paomo · Hui quarter
The local favourite for mutton paomo, and the one Xi'an people actually name when you ask. The soup is rich, the mutton falls apart, and the pickled radish on the side cuts the fat. Prices have crept up with the fame but it's still the benchmark.
Steamed soup dumplings · Hui quarter
One of the busiest doors on Bei Yuan Men, right by the Drum Tower. Thin-skinned steamed buns full of scalding soup; the lamb ones are the reason to come. Sit upstairs if you can get a table.
Roujiamo · old name
A century-old shop that does one thing properly: pork braised in master stock, chopped, and packed into a bun baked to order. The meat is half fat, half lean, and it melts. One is a full meal.
Hulutou · local institution
The address to try hulutou, Xi'an's pork-intestine-and-stomach soup. The offal is cleaned properly — no funk, just rich broth and soft intestines — and the chili-garlic lamb blood side dish is worth ordering too.
Where to stay
Hostel · central
In the middle of the city, walkable to everything, and housed in what is described as the most completely preserved traditional courtyard building around — you get the city's old residential feel rather than a hotel corridor.
Hostel · by the station
The only hostel in Xi'an genuinely set inside a historic building — a courtyard house from the early 1900s, white walls, grey tiles, round moon gates, wooden windows, a garden with birdsong. One kilometre from the railway station, so the tourist buses to the Terracotta Army and Huaqing Palace are a walk away.
Hostel · city centre
Inside the Small South Gate, right against the Ming wall, under 15 minutes on foot to the Bell and Drum Towers. Warm, clean rooms.
Budget chain
National chain, clean and consistent. The Jiefang Road branch is well placed for transport and the rooms are exactly as tidy and fresh as the brand promises, with comfortable bedding.
Mid-range hotel
In the commercial and shopping district with views towards the city wall and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Fifteen minutes' walk to the centre.
Practicalities
Prices and hours in this guide reflect published information at the time of writing; confirm before you travel, especially for the Terracotta Army and Mount Hua.
| Best time to go | Spring and autumn. Xi'an is much drier than southern China — drink more water and moisturise. Summer is hot, the midday sun is brutal, and sudden downpours happen; avoid unshaded sites like the city wall in the middle of the day and head for the tree-covered scenic areas outside town instead. |
|---|---|
| Climate in numbers | Warm temperate, semi-humid monsoon. Annual high around 40°C, annual low around -8°C. January is coldest at -0.5 to 1.3°C on average; July is hottest at 26.3–27°C; annual average 13.6°C. |
| Daily budget | Xi'an is one of the more economically developed cities in the west and costs are moderate — food and lodging are cheap, but attraction tickets are on the high side. Student discounts are often an unhelpful 30% or 20% off rather than the usual half. |
| Shaanxi Tourist Annual Pass | CNY 98. Covers most Xi'an and regional attractions and, in its expanded form, 511 scenic areas across 98 cities including Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Beijing. Worth it if you're staying a while or plan to revisit sites. Details at http://www.029-china.cn |
| Airport | Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, 45 km northwest of the centre, about an hour by expressway. Domestic flights plus services to Japan, Thailand and South Korea. Taxi from the city about CNY 120. |
| Airport bus | CNY 26 per person. Line 1 (Bell Tower–Airport) runs 5:40–01:00 every 20 minutes; Line 2 (Railway Station, Jiefang Hotel) 7:00–20:00 every 30 minutes; Line 3 (West High-Tech) 6:15–18:15 every 30 minutes; Line 4 (Xiaozhai) 7:00–18:00 hourly; Line 5 (Jianguo Hotel) 7:00–18:00 hourly; Line 6 (Xianyang) 7:00–18:00 hourly. Hotline 4000-787-737. |
| Taxi | Flag fall CNY 6 for 2 km (plus a CNY 1 gas surcharge per ride), then CNY 1.5 per km. Waiting time charged at half a kilometre per 2.5 minutes. Empty-return surcharge kicks in from 8 km at 50% of the per-km rate. At night 23:00–06:00, add CNY 1 to the flag fall and CNY 0.3 per km. |
| Metro | Line 2 runs North Railway Station to Convention Centre. First trains 6:30 northbound, 6:40 southbound; last trains 21:10 and 21:30. Trains every 9 minutes 20 seconds. Fares CNY 2 (up to 6 stops), CNY 3 (7–10 stops), CNY 4 (11+ stops). |
| Buses | Ordinary buses are flat CNY 1, no change given. Air-conditioned buses are either CNY 2 flat or CNY 1 for up to six stops then CNY 2. Minibuses run faster with denser stops, often serving lanes the big buses skip — CNY 0.5 for the first three stops, then CNY 0.5 every four stops, capped around CNY 3–5. |
| Tourist bus lines | Bus 游1 Railway Station–Xiyue Temple–Mount Hua (8:00 out, 17:00 back). 游2 Railway Station–Famen Temple–Taibai Mountain (8:00 out, 15:00 from Famen). 游3 Railway Station–Qianling (8:00 out, 15:00 back). 游4 Railway Station–Hanyangling (8:00–17:30, one departure daily). 游5 Railway Station–Terracotta Army, 7:00–18:10, via Banpo Museum, Qin Shi Huang's tomb, Huaqing Palace, Mount Li, Lintong Museum, Hongmen Banquet site. 游6 Railway Station East Square–Tangyuan, 6:40–19:30. 游7 Railway Station–Xixinzhuang, 7:00–19:00. 游8 (610) Zhaojia Village–Tang Paradise South Gate, 6:30–20:00. 游9 Jinhua North Road–Qinling Wildlife Park, 6:00–20:00. |
| Long-distance buses | Xi'an has many coach stations and road links in all directions. Key ones: Chengnan (029-85246080, south-west corner of South Third Ring and Zhuque Avenue) for Hu County, Hanzhong, Ankang, Shangzhou, Xiangfan; Shaanxi Xi'an Bus Station (029-87427420, south-west of the railway station square) for Shangluo, Hanzhong, Ankang, Weinan and parts of Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Henan and Shanxi; Chengdong (029-82597222, 17 Changle Middle Road) for Weinan, northern Shaanxi and parts of Ningxia, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei; Chengxi (029-84627137 / 84630000, 39 Zaoyuan East Road) for Baoji and Pingliang; Chengbei (029-86523019 / 86517911 / 86528733, 9 West Section of North Second Ring) for Sanyuan, Fuping, Mizhi, Wubao, Jiaxian, Suide, Yan'an, Huangling, Tongchuan, Jingyang, Pucheng; Sanfuwan (029-83136066, 353 Changying West Road). |
| Health | Xijing Hospital, 15 Changle West Road — 029-83215321 (online booking), 029-84774114 (switchboard), 029-84775539 (emergency). Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, 1 Xinyi Road, Baqiao District — 029-84777777 / 84777114. Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical School, 157 Xiwu Road — 029-87679323 (outpatient). |
| Emergency and information | Tourist complaints and enquiries 029-87630166. Xi'an Public Security Bureau 029-87234500. Four tourist information centres: Drum Tower Square, Xianyang International Airport, Xi'an Railway Station and the Terracotta Army square in Lintong. Official tourism site http://www.xian-tourism.com/. Bell Tower Post Office, 1 North Street, 029-87286619. |
| Etiquette and safety | In Muslim Quarter restaurants and other halal places, respect local custom: almost none serve alcohol, and pork and blood products are neither eaten nor sold. When buying crafts and souvenirs watch for scam 'antiques' — especially anything described as dug up from someone's own field. Shaanxi has plenty of relics, but not that many. If you genuinely think you've found something real, don't buy it, report it. Only buses marked 'Shaanxi Tourist Bus Line' are legitimate; private vehicles run the same routes as de facto tours and won't let you set your own schedule. At the Bell Tower airport bus stop and outside the railway station, taxis wait specifically for out-of-town visitors and may take the long way or refuse the meter — avoid unmetered cars. Taxi complaints 96716. Note that between 13:00 and 17:00 drivers change shifts, so many cabs stop working or only take passengers heading their way. |
Day trips
Hua Shan, the West Peak of China's five sacred mountains, sits 118 km east of Xi'an and is famous for exactly one thing: danger. The classic route starts at Yuquan Temple and passes the 'Three Perils' — Thousand-Foot Precipice, Hundred-Foot Gorge and Laojun's Furrow — before reaching North Peak. From there it's on to the knife-edge ridge of Canglong Ling and finally East Peak, where the sunrise terrace is the reason half of China climbs this mountain in the dark.
Tickets are CNY 180 high season, CNY 100 low season, valid two days. The west gate is open 24 hours. Tourist bus 游1 leaves the east square of Xi'an railway station at 8:00 and returns from Hua Shan at 17:00; regular trains take 1.5–2 hours for about CNY 20. If you climb at night, rent a coat at the top and sleep on the summit — it's cold, it's crowded, and everyone agrees it was worth it. Sleeping at the base instead costs CNY 15 for a bed, around CNY 120 for a standard room.
Famen Temple, 120 km west of Xi'an in Fufeng County, was founded in the late Eastern Han dynasty and served as a royal temple for the Tang emperors. In 1987 workers repairing the pagoda found a sealed underground palace that had been untouched for 1,113 years — inside were four finger-bone relics of the Buddha, 121 pieces of Tang imperial gold and silver, the first known examples of Tang 'secret colour' porcelain, and silk textiles including empress Wu Zetian's embroidered skirts.
Tickets: CNY 120 March–November, CNY 90 December–February. Tourist bus 游2 runs from the railway station at 8:00 and returns at 15:00 for CNY 18 one way. There's also a free shuttle from the west gate of Tang Paradise, hourly between 8:00 and 11:00, but you must hold a Famen Temple ticket or a combined ticket — both sold at the Tang Paradise ticket office. Ignore anyone selling a CNY 18 'Famen Temple Eastern Buddha City' ticket (a private sideshow) or offering to sneak you in the back door for CNY 60; the underground palace is ticket-controlled.
Yan'an, in the north of Shaanxi on the loess plateau, is where modern Chinese history was written — and it's a two-day trip, not a day trip. The standard route runs Xi'an → Huangdi Mausoleum → Hukou Waterfall on day one, then Yan'an city, Baota Shan, Date Garden, Yangjialing and the Revolutionary Memorial Hall on day two. Huangdi Mausoleum alone is nearly 200 km from Xi'an and seven hours return by road.
Expect food that has nothing to do with Xi'an: fewer vegetables, more potato, noodles and mutton. Try yangyu caca (grated potato steamed with flour and spices) and you gao, the sticky date cake that is northern Shaanxi's signature sweet. Yan'an railway station, in the south of the city, has trains to Xi'an, Beijing, Ankang, Shenmu and Yulin.
Getting around
Xianyang International Airport (XIY) sits about 45 km northwest of the city in Xianyang, with flights to major Chinese cities plus Japan, Thailand and Korea. The airport expressway gets you downtown in roughly an hour; a taxi runs about CNY 120. Six airport shuttle routes cover the city at CNY 26 per person — Route 1 leaves the Bell Tower (Meilun Hotel) every 20 minutes from 05:40 to 01:00, Route 2 runs from the railway station (Jiefang Hotel) every 30 minutes from 07:00 to 20:00.
Xian Railway Station is the rail hub of western China and the fourth-busiest passenger station in the country, with buses stopping in front and along its east and west sides. High-speed and bullet trains use Xian North Station in Weiyang District — reach it on metro Line 2 or buses 263, 264, 265 and 266. Arriving by train is the easiest way to do Xian as a standalone stop on a longer China itinerary.
One metro line currently runs, Line 2, from North Railway Station to Convention Centre — first trains at 06:30 and 06:40, last at 21:10 and 21:30, every 9 minutes 20 seconds. Fares are CNY 2 up to 6 stops, CNY 3 for 7–10 stops and CNY 4 beyond. City buses are CNY 1 flat with exact change required, air-conditioned buses are CNY 2 or CNY 1 under six stops, and mid-size minibuses charge CNY 0.5 for the first three stops then CNY 0.5 every four stops, capping around CNY 3–5.
Taxis start at CNY 6 for 2 km plus a CNY 1 gas surcharge, then CNY 1.5 per km; after 8 km a 50 percent empty-return fee kicks in, and between 23:00 and 06:00 the flag drops CNY 1 higher with CNY 0.3 per km added. Watch out between 13:00 and 17:00, when drivers change shifts and many refuse fares — this is the hardest window to hail a cab. At the Bell Tower airport-bus stop and outside the railway station, touts may refuse the meter or take the long way; avoid unmetered cars and call 96716 to complain.
Shopping
The Stele Forest holds more than 2,300 steles from the Han, Wei, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties — the greatest gathering of calligraphy steles in China. Rubbings include Yan Zhenqing's Duobao Pagoda Stele, Liu Gongquan's Xuami Pagoda Stele, and works by Ouyang Xun, Chu Suiliang and Huaisu.
Shrunken copies of the real thing, and heavy because they're stone. Sold in tourist shops, but the vendors around the pits themselves will haggle — judge by the fineness of the carving and argue the price down.
Flat, small and scarlet, glossy enough to look lacquered, thin-skinned and seedless, with flesh that's sweet and cooling rather than cloying. The skin peels off almost by itself, which is why people eat them standing up.
Walnuts, pomegranates, thick rice wine, crystal cakes, cured beef and osmanthus rice wine. Most supermarkets have a dedicated local-products aisle, which saves you hunting. The Muslim Quarter shops sell dried fruit, cakes and preserves too and you can bargain.
A street of antiques, calligraphy, painting and stationery right under the wall near the Stele Forest Museum. Named after the Guanzhong Academy inside it. Quality varies wildly, but if you're serious you can find good pieces — and because it's where locals buy their brushes and ink, the good stuff is genuinely good.
The arts-and-crafts lane behind the Drum Tower, off Beiyuanmen: shadow puppets, paper cuts, cloisonné, fabric work, metal ornaments. Fair warning — this one is aimed at foreign visitors, so what's sold is more generically 'Chinese' than specifically Xi'an, and the prices are steeper. Look freely, buy carefully.
Activities
Shaanxi's own opera — also called 'random plucking' — and the oldest vocal art in Chinese regional theatre. The 'bitter tone' style is the signature: deep, mournful, fiercely emotional. Head to the southern stretch of the ring park around the wall, where local retirees gather with instruments and sing for free, or catch the staged production at the Yisushe Theatre, one of the world's three oldest theatres.
Productions like 'Music and Dance of Tang Chang'an', 'Song of the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat' and 'Soul of the Terracotta Warriors' are professional-grade reconstructions of Tang court performance. Venues include Tang Yue Gong on Chang'an North Road, the Shaanxi Song and Dance Theatre on Wenyi North Road, and Tang Paradise. Huaqing Palace's 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow' is the one people rave about.
Xi'an has produced Xu Wei, Zheng Jun and Zhang Chu of the Magic Stone trio — a serious pedigree. The scene mostly runs underground, with shows organised through guitar shops and bars rather than big venues. If you want to hear what the city sounds like when it isn't being ancient, this is it.
The Muslim Quarter — properly called Huimin Fang — is the densest concentration of snacks in the city, and the side lanes west of it (Xiyangshi, Dapiyuan, Xiaopiyuan, Guangming Lane, Beiguangji Street, Daxuexi Lane) are where the good shops actually are. Budget an afternoon and keep going until it's dark.
13.7 km, 40 minutes at a decent pace, with the old town on one side and the new city on the other. It's the single best way to understand how Xi'an is put together, and it costs CNY 40 for the bike plus CNY 40 for the wall.
Restaurants
Lamb paomo
Looks shabby, and the people standing with their bowls waiting for seats outnumber the ones sitting. The broth is excellent, the lamb falls apart, and the hard bread blossoms the moment it hits the soup. Pair it with their pickled radish. Prices have crept up with the fame.
Hulutou
The hulutou here is the reason to come: served swimming in a thick white broth, the intestines cleaned so thoroughly there's no trace of anything unpleasant, tender and rich. They also do cold dishes and stir-fries — the chilli-and-garlic lamb blood is a good, sharp appetite-opener.
Roujiamo
An old-name shop, and the bun is properly crisp on the outside, the meat a mix of fatty and lean braised to the point of collapse, juicy and generous. One is basically a meal.
Steamed beef
Twenty-plus years in business. Beef tenderloin cut into strips, battered, fried, then steamed in beef stock with spices until the broth perfumes every piece. Served scalding in an enamel bowl — rich without being greasy.
Soup dumplings
One of the busiest doors in the Muslim Quarter. Thin skins, delicate filling, soup that actually tastes of something — the lamb version especially. A genuine old-name halal house.
Cheap and fast
Rice noodles, roujiamo and red bean porridge — that's the whole menu. Pay at the door, collect at the window, fight for a table at mealtimes.
Noodles
Thick, seriously springy noodles cooked in a pot right at the doorway. The owner has an extraordinary memory — big bowl, small bowl, coriander or not, she never writes anything down. Perpetually packed.
Chain liangpi
Branches all over the city. Two styles: the 'secret recipe' version, thinner and chewier with plenty of toppings and a properly punchy chilli oil, and the sesame-paste version, thick and nutty.
Getting there
Xi'an Xianyang International Airport sits 45 km northwest of the city, connected by expressway, roughly an hour from the centre. It handles domestic flights plus services to Japan, Thailand and South Korea.
Xi'an Railway Station is the rail hub of the west and the fourth-busiest passenger station in the country, with buses stopping and starting all around it plus the Shaanxi Xi'an long-distance bus station. Xi'an North Station handles high-speed and bullet trains.
Plenty of coach stations with routes across Shaanxi and into neighbouring provinces. Detailed station contacts are in the practical information table above.
Metro Line 2 currently links North Railway Station with the Convention Centre. Buses are cheap and extensive; tourist bus lines cover the big out-of-town sites.
Cheap by big-city standards but watch the shift-change hours and the airport and station touts.
Background
Xi'an, once called Chang'an, is where Chinese civilisation took root, and several thousand years of sediment later it still carries a remarkably intact historical face. "Chang'an has been the imperial capital since ancient times" isn't a slogan — it's a description. Every old lane, every grey wall brick, every roof tile over a deep courtyard can drop you through time. In its day the Epang Palace had a terrace every five paces and a pavilion every ten; the Silk Road's camel bells rang through an international metropolis that was, for a while, the busiest city on earth.
The questions visitors ask us most about Xi'an, answered plainly.
Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.
Three days covers the essentials and four is comfortable. Day one is the city wall, Bell and Drum Towers, the Muslim Quarter and the Stele Forest; day two is Shaanxi History Museum and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda; day three is the Terracotta Army, Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum and Huaqing Hot Springs. Add a fourth for Huashan or the Famen Temple, and note the Terracotta Army is 40 km east — it eats a full day.
Yes — it is the reason most people come, and no photograph prepares you for the scale of Pit 1. Take bus 306 (Tourist Line 5) from the east square of Xi'an Railway Station, CNY 7, 1–1.5 hours; ignore anyone at the station claiming to be the 306, check the sign on the front of the bus and pay on board. Tickets are CNY 150 in high season (Mar 16–Nov 14) and CNY 120 in low season, open 8:30–17:30 in summer and 8:30–17:00 in winter.
Spring (April–May) and autumn (September–October) — mild, dry and clear. Summer is brutal: highs around 40°C, sudden downpours, and the city wall has almost no shade, so go early or after 17:00. Winter drops to about -8°C at its worst but is quiet and cheap, and the Terracotta Army pits are unheated, so dress for it.
Start with lamb or beef paomo (tear the flatbread yourself, the smaller the better), then roujiamo, cold liangpi noodles, biangbiang noodles, water-basin lamb and meatball hulatang for breakfast. The Muslim Quarter is the right area, but walk past Beiyuanmen — the crowded main drag — into Xiyangshi, Dapiyuan and Guangming Lane, where the same dishes are better and cheaper. Almost all Hui restaurants are alcohol-free and serve no blood products, so respect that.
No — food and accommodation are moderate, and you can eat very well for CNY 30–60 a meal. The catch is tickets: the Terracotta Army at CNY 150, the wall at CNY 40, Huaqing Hot Springs at CNY 110 and the Tang Paradise theme park at CNY 120 add up fast. Student discounts here are often only 20–30% off, not the usual 50%, so budget for full-price tickets.
Yes, and many people do, but it is a long day. Huashan is 118 km east, about 1.5–2 hours by train (CNY 20-ish) or 2 hours by road from the east bus station (CNY 33). Tickets are CNY 180 in high season and CNY 100 in low season and are valid two days. If you want the sunrise from East Peak, sleep at the mountain foot or on the summit — summit beds are basic and sell out, so book ahead.
Plan this trip
The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.
The essential first-time itinerary: imperial Beijing, the Terracotta Army in Xi'an and futuristic Shanghai, linked by high-speed rail.
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The three great capitals plus a morning with the pandas of Chengdu — the trip we recommend to seven out of ten first-time visitors.
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View tourFive regions, one journey: imperial north, panda country, the karst rivers of Guilin and the skyline of Shanghai, with Hangzhou's West Lake.
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Xi'an
Pit 1 before the coaches, the bronze chariots, then the city wall at dusk — the two halves of Xi'an in one day.
From US$98/per person
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Xi'an
Cycle the only complete Ming city wall in China in the cool of the morning, then eat your way through the Hui quarter the Silk Road left behind.
From US$89/per person
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Xi'an
The western peak by cable car, the ridge walk to the south peak, and the plank walk if you want it — China's most vertical sacred mountain in a day.
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View tourCity guides
Dalian
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The Northern Pearl — China's most romantic coastal city.
Shenyang
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Where the Qing dynasty began — an imperial palace, a warlord's mansion and the cheapest good food in the northeast.
Changbai Mountain
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A volcano on the North Korean border, a jade-green crater lake at 2,189 m, and hot springs on the way down.
Kunming
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China's Spring City — a mild plateau capital of flowers, markets and the Stone Forest, with gulls on the lake in winter.
Dali
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A walled Bai town between a 4,000 m mountain and a great lake — wind, flowers, snow and moon, and life at a slower speed.
Shuhe
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The quiet version of Lijiang — a Tea Horse Road village of canals, stone bridges and slow afternoons, 4 km from the crowds.
Lijiang
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A UNESCO Naxi old town of canals and cobbles beneath a 5,596 m snow mountain — the cultural heart of north-west Yunnan.
Xiamen
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A subtropical island city of temples, fishing-village lanes and the best street food in Fujian — with the car-free islet of Gulangyu a 20-minute ferry away.
Gulangyu
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A car-free island of colonial villas, pianos and cats, twenty minutes off Xiamen — and the one place where the trick is simply to stay the night.
Fuzhou
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A 2,200-year-old capital of banyan trees and mountains-within-the-city, where the Ming lanes of Sanfang Qixiang meet the dockyard that built China's modern navy.
Lugu Lake
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A 2,680 m lake on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, home to China's last matrilineal people, pig-trough canoes and a great deal of doing nothing.
Xishuangbanna
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China's tropical south — rainforest, wild elephants, Dai villages and the Mekong, wrapped around the gateway city of Jinghong.
Shangri-La
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A Tibetan town at 3,300 m in Yunnan's Diqing prefecture — monasteries, grassland, prayer wheels and cold thin air.
Nanchang
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Jiangxi's 'hero city' on the Gan River — one great Tang pavilion, a 160-metre Ferris wheel, and the best claypot soup you will eat in China.
Hefei
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Anhui's 2,000-year-old capital: the hometown of China's model judge, a moat-turned-garden ring, and the fast rail gateway to Huangshan.
Hongcun
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A 900-year-old Hui village laid out as an ox, with water running to every door and a mirror-still crescent pond at its heart.
Wuhan
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Three towns, two rivers and the best breakfast in China — a huge, blunt river city of bridges, lakes and cheap, brilliant street food.
Changsha
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Hunan's loud, young capital: a 3,000-year-old city that eats chilli-hot food, stays up all night and treats foot massage as a civic duty.
Fenghuang Ancient Town
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The stilt-house river town of Shen Congwen's 'Border Town' — glowing lanterns, stepping stones and the best two nights in western Hunan.
Lushan
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A cloud-wrapped granite mountain with a Victorian hill station on top, waterfalls in three tiers, and the mist that Su Shi said you could never see through.
Wuyuan
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China's 'most beautiful countryside' — dozens of white-walled Huizhou villages strung along streams and terraced into the hills, and two weeks a year of gold.
Mount Heng (Hengshan, Hunan)
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The South Great Peak: a pilgrimage mountain of 72 summits where the temples run all the way to the top, and the sunrise over the cloud sea is the whole point.
Huangshan
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Yellow Mountain: 82 granite peaks of twisted pines and grotesque rock, a sea of cloud that changes by the hour, and hot springs at the foot.
Wudang Mountain
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The Taoist first mountain of China — a gilded bronze hall on a 1,612 m summit, temples hung off cliff faces, and the birthplace of tai chi.
Luoyang
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Thirteen dynasties, 100,000 Buddhas carved into a river cliff, China's first Buddhist temple — and a whole city that turns peony-pink every April.
Yuntai Mountain
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A UNESCO geopark in Henan where red-stone gorges squeeze a river to a slot, a 314 m waterfall drops in one plunge, and every path leads to another pool.
Rizhao
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A low-key Shandong beach town where the sun rises straight out of the Yellow Sea, the sand runs 60 km and a seafood dinner costs less than a coffee in Shanghai.
Yantai
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A northern Shandong port of fairy-tale cliffs, wine cellars and long golden beaches — where emperors once hunted the elixir of life and China's wine industry still begins.
Lianyungang
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A working Jiangsu port with a myth in the middle of it — the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, a sea causeway to a big island beach, and some of the cheapest seafood on the coast.
Sanqing Mountain
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A vertical forest of granite pillars in Jiangxi — the Python Out of the Mountain, the Goddess of the East Sea, two cable cars and a cliff-hugging walkway at 1,660 metres.
Tianjin
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Beijing's port city next door — a river of 24 bridges, 2,000 colonial villas, and the best street breakfast in northern China.
Datong
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A frontier capital of carved Buddhas — the Yungang Grottoes, a temple pinned to a cliff, and the oldest wooden tower in China.
Taiyuan
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Shanxi's provincial capital and noodle heartland — the spring of Jinci, two Ming pagodas, and a museum that explains the whole province.
Pingyao
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China's best-preserved ancient walled town — a Ming wall, the first Chinese bank, and two temples of painted clay just outside the gates.
Wutai Mountain
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China's foremost Buddhist mountain — fifty-plus temples in one valley, crowned by five flat-topped peaks up to 3,058 m.
Hulunbuir
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China's finest grassland — a 263,000 km² sweep of steppe, birch forest and border river, best driven with the windows down.
The Forbidden City
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Beijing's 600-year imperial palace — 8,700 rooms behind a 72-hectare wall, and the largest surviving wooden palace complex on earth.
Sanya
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China's only true winter-sun coast — four very different bays, a coral island and a 108 m sea Buddha, all at 18° north.
Haikou
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Hainan's capital is the island's living city — 600-year-old arcade streets, a volcanic village, and a morning-tea-to-midnight food culture.
Beihai
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24 km of fine white sand on one side, a volcanic island of coral and lava on the other — plus a 19th-century arcade old street in between.
Nanning
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Guangxi's green capital is a gateway to Detian Falls, Beihai and Vietnam — and a genuinely excellent food city if you let it slow you down.
Guangxi
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One autonomous region, a dozen landscapes — limestone peaks and rice terraces in the north, a Vietnam border and a warm gulf coast in the south.
Huizhou
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A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.
Beidaihe
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Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.
Shanhaiguan
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The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.
Baiyangdian
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The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.
Qinhuangdao
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126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.
Yesanpo
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Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.
Zhuhai
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The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.
Wuyi Mountain
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Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.
Jiuzhaigou
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108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.
Mount Siguniang
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Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.
Hailuogou
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A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.
Daocheng Yading
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Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.
Shunan Bamboo Sea
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Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.
Dujiangyan
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Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.
Qingcheng Mountain
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The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.
Qingdao
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Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.
Mount Tai
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1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.
Jinan
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A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.
Weihai
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1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.
Qufu
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One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.
Penglai
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China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.
Changdao
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32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.
Nanjing
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Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.
Suzhou
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Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.
Zhouzhuang
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Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.
Tongli
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Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.
Wuxi
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Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.
Yangzhou
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A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.
Zhenjiang
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Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.
Changzhou
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A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.
Wuzhen
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A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.
Xitang
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Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.
Hangzhou
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A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.
Xixi Wetland
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Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.
Ningbo
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A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.
Mount Putuo
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A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.
Qiandao Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.
Shaoxing
City guide · 12 tours
Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.
Zhoushan
City guide · 12 tours
1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.
Hengdian
City guide · 12 tours
A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.
Yandang Mountain
City guide · 12 tours
A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.
Zhejiang
City guide · 12 tours
One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.
Hong Kong Outlying Islands
City guide · 12 tours
Two hundred-odd islands, half an hour of ferry from the financial district, and not a car on three of them.
Hong Kong Shopping
City guide · 12 tours
A duty-free port where the tag starts lower, two citywide sale seasons knock a third off, and every mall sits on an MTR exit.
Macao
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Four hundred years of Portuguese streets, a fake Venice under a painted sky, and the best egg tart in Asia.
Urumqi
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The city furthest from the sea, with a snow range on its doorstep and dinner starting at nine.
Hong Kong SAR, China
City guide · 11 tours
A harbour skyline you already know by heart, dim sum trolleys at dawn, and 260 islands an hour from the neon.
Taiwan, China
City guide · 11 tours
Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.
Qinghai Lake
City guide · 12 tours
A 4,400 sq km inland sea at 3,200 m, ringed by rapeseed gold, prayer flags and the best cycling road in China.
Mount Emei
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,099-metre Buddhist summit you can reach by cable car before lunch — and a mountain full of monkeys that will absolutely rob you.
Beijing
City guide · 11 tours
Six centuries of imperial red walls, a Great Wall you can climb before lunch, and the best roast duck on earth.
Taipei
City guide · 11 tours
A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.
North Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Alpine lakes the colour of poured enamel, a village of log cabins under birch trees, and the last tear the Atlantic ever sheds.
Lanzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A city split in half by the Yellow River, where beef noodles are a breakfast ritual and the Silk Road still runs through the streets.
Mount Hua
City guide · 11 tours
Five granite peaks, one plank road bolted to a cliff face, and a sunrise that justifies the 2am start.
Dunhuang
City guide · 11 tours
A desert oasis where Buddhist cave art survived a thousand years and a crescent lake refused to dry up.
Gannan
City guide · 11 tours
433 kilometres of the Yellow River's first bend, a 3.5 km prayer-wheel circuit, and Tibetan grasslands almost nobody has commercialised yet.
Sichuan–Tibet Highway
City guide · 11 tours
2,142 kilometres of cliff-edge switchbacks, four of China's most beautiful mountains, and a road the Tibetans walk on their knees.
Kangding
City guide · 11 tours
The town that gave Asia its most famous love song, a 7,556m sacred peak on its doorstep, and the last real Tibetan town before the road climbs to Lhasa.
Lhasa
City guide · 12 tours
A city of prayer wheels and butter lamps at 3,700 metres, where the sun shines 3,000 hours a year and the world's highest palace watches over it all.
Nyingchi
City guide · 11 tours
Tibet's greenest corner — peach blossom valleys, a 7,782 m peak that hides from almost everyone, and the world's deepest canyon.
Namtso
City guide · 11 tours
A 1,920-square-kilometre sheet of impossible blue at 4,718 metres, ringed by snow peaks and prayer flags.
Chongqing
City guide · 12 tours
A vertical city of fog, cable cars and cliff-side stilt houses, where the火锅 never stops boiling and the night skyline outshines Hong Kong.
Qiandongnan
City guide · 11 tours
A thousand Miao households stacked up a mountainside, drum towers and wind-rain bridges in Dong villages, and a 600-year-old Ming garrison town on the road to Guiyang.
Libo
City guide · 11 tours
Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.
Guiyang
City guide · 11 tours
China's summer capital at 1,100 metres, where the nights run on sour fish soup, street-side barbecue and mahjong that never quite stops.
Zhenyuan
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,000-year-old river town where the Wuyang River carves an S through the mountains and every lane hides a story.
Huangguoshu
City guide · 11 tours
Asia's biggest waterfall, and the only one on earth you can walk behind, above and around — plus 600-year-old Ming dynasty villages a short drive away.
Harbin
City guide · 11 tours
Minus 30 degrees, a frozen river you can walk across, and a cathedral built by Russians who never went home.
Yunnan
City guide · 11 tours
Snow mountains, tropical rainforest, twenty-five minorities and a plate of rice noodles — all in one province.
Shanghai
City guide · 11 tours
A 1920s waterfront of colonial banks facing a science-fiction skyline, soup dumplings you eat with a straw, and 20 million people moving like clockwork.
Zhangjiajie
City guide · 11 tours
Three thousand sandstone pillars straight out of Avatar, a glass skywalk bolted to a cliff, and a cable car that leaves from downtown.
Guangzhou
City guide · 11 tours
A 2,200-year-old trading port where dim sum is a religion, colonial islands sit beside 600-metre towers, and the food never stops.
Guilin
City guide · 11 tours
Karst peaks rising straight out of a green river, rice terraces carved into mountainsides, and the best bowl of noodles you'll eat in China.
Shenzhen
City guide · 11 tours
A fishing village that became a megacity in forty years — and it still has 500-year-old banyans, empty beaches and dim sum worth the border crossing.
Chengdu
City guide · 11 tours
A 3,000-year-old city where the schedule is tea, mahjong and hotpot — and the pandas are just the opening act.
Xinjiang
City guide · 11 tours
Snow peaks, grassland, desert and oasis — one-sixth of China, and the longest road you will ever ride.
Qinghai
City guide · 11 tours
China's high-altitude blue heart: a salt lake you can walk on, a 3,200-metre sea, and yak butter tea at the roof of the world.
Tibet
City guide · 11 tours
A plateau the size of Western Europe where the sky starts at your feet, prayer flags carry the wind, and the roads run past 8,000-metre peaks.
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